Staff Reports
New York’s woke wave keeps finding ways to surprise. This week State Senator Erik Bottcher and Assemblymember Tony Simone announced a push to repeal the AIDS‑era sanitary code that has kept sex‑on‑premises bathhouses and saunas off the books. They call it the “Public Health Modernization Act,” pitching repeal as a way to regulate what they say already happens in the shadows. If you like risky ideas dressed up as progress, this one has your name on it.
What Senator Bottcher and Assemblymember Simone are proposing
The lawmakers say the 1985 rule that bars establishments from “making facilities available for the purpose of sexual activities” is out of date. Their plan, as described in public announcements, would strip that ban from the sanitary code and force the State Department of Health to write licensing and safety rules for adult saunas and bathhouses. So far this is an announcement of intent more than a finished bill — supporters are pitching regulation as the safer alternative to unregulated spots, and opponents are warning of obvious public‑health risks.
Why this repeal matters to public health and safety
Bathhouses were a flashpoint in the AIDS crisis for a reason. New York lost tens of thousands of lives in that epidemic, and the memories of those years are not mere nostalgia. Proponents point to modern tools like PrEP and new treatments and claim regulated venues would reduce harm. Critics say government-sanctioned spaces for anonymous sex invite higher rates of STDs and complicate disease control — and that is not a small concern for families, neighborhoods, or the stretch of city that already wrestles with open‑air drug use and disorder.
Bad priorities in a city with real problems
Let’s be blunt: when crime, quality‑of‑life collapse, and public drug use top the nightly news, choosing to spend political capital on legalizing anonymous public sex feels like a dodge. This comes alongside efforts to relax laws around prostitution, which only makes the whole package look like a moral experiment more than a public‑health strategy. New York needs leaders who fix broken sidewalks and keep streets safe, not leaders who argue that bringing back sex‑on‑premises bathhouses is cultural restoration while neighborhoods rot.
What comes next — and why voters should care
Expect a fight. The proposal still needs formal bill text, committee hearings, and likely a rowdy public debate. There are zoning, building, and fire‑code questions that don’t vanish because a press release says “modernize.” Minneapolis and San Francisco have walked parts of this road and discovered permitting and opposition slow things down. Conservatives should make the case plainly: public health and public order deserve priority over experiments in normalizing anonymous sex in commercial spaces. If voters want safer streets and healthier families, they’ll tell Albany to leave the bathhouses in the past where they belong.
